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Foster Info

To foster, please email tailsofhope@live.com with Foster Offer in the subject line. Please understand that a great deal of effort and resources goes into setting up for foster, so please consider this completely before getting our hopes up. We are looking for dedicated individuals that will follow through on their commitments to the best of their ability, and that will meet us half way when unexpected issues occur. In return, Tails of Hope will cover all vetting expences that are incurred with our approval at our vet, and when necessary, food and resources needed to care for the Tails of Hope dogs in your care.

Tails of Hope pulls nearly 100% of their dogs from kill shelters. What this means is that before we get our dogs into rescue and have an opportunity to evaluate them, we know very little about them and how they would fit into a foster's home. Regrettably most fosters feel that they aren't doing as much unless they pull directly from a shelter's euth list, and while we understand this, we need them to understand how pulling a dog from a euth list has trickle back to our organization, and encourage them when possible to instead take a dog that is currently in our program that has already been evaluated. Following is a brief listing of reasons to take a dog that has already been evaluated and in our program.

REMEMBER that all of our dogs were death row doggies at one point, and freeing up a spot in a foster home, will make room for us to pull more from Euth lists, without inconveniencing your household or the organization through unexpected trickle down lash back.

What you need to know about fostering a dog directly from a shelter euth list.

Dogs can come from the shelter with or harboring shelter born illnesses. I would say that about 50% of our shelter dogs come in with or contract a respiratory bug within three days of pulling them. This means that it is recommended that any of your current pets be up to date on ALL vaccinations. Personally we hate the bordatella vaccine unless it is necessary, but in instances of fostering, I do feel that it is necessary.

Pulling a puppy or litter of puppies comes with additional risks, the instances of shelter born illnesses are increased, because their immune system isn't fully developed. And puppies are more likely to break with parvo - which is sometimes fatal. Also as a rule, Tails of Hope never leaves mommas or siblings behind, so unless you can commit to a whole family, we ask that you take another dog on the euth list.

Most dogs are not spay/neutered or current on all vaccinations when they come into us. This means that arrangements will need to be made to get that foster dog IF older than 6 months to the vet to get him altered before he/she can go to adoption events. We can work with you, but there is no way to do this without being somewhat intrusive to your schedule.

IF you are pulling directly from a shelter euth list and pulling an approved dog, you need to understand the following. The ONLY reason we aren't stepping up for this dog or puppy already is that we DO NOT have foster space available to support it. What this means is that IF you pull this unevaluated dog, and if it then proves to be incompatible with your current household situation, we DO NOT have an available foster at the drop of a hat to come and pull this dog from your house. What this means is that you would need to be willing to TRADE for another dog in foster that we would feel is more compatible with your living environment. We would never leave you unsupported, but if we have no room to care for a dog, then we would have to trade a dog.

To go with the above statement, Tails of Hope hasn't had an opportunity to evaluate euth listed dogs. Some information is provided by the shelter some of the time, but we can not tell you as a rule how a dog will be with other dogs, kids, cats or how they are emotionally or behaviorally.

Sometimes information, even the very basic information as sex, age and size is not communicated properly between the shelter and our rescue. So sometimes a male is a female or visa versa. Or a puppy is an adult, or the dog that looked small in the picture is actually 60 pounds. And SOMETIMES, not often, but SOMETIMES they send us the wrong dog due to a mix up during transport or pull.

Sometimes a dog has behavioral problems or emotional problems that we can't be aware of, which can sometimes lead to damage in the home. We highly recommend crates. This rarely happens, but again it is something to keep in mind as a possibility when pulling an unevaluated dog/puppy directly from the shelter.

What do you provide? What am I responsible for?

You are responsible for keeping a dog as safe as you can in a loving environment.

You are responsible for being upfront and honest with us when an accident or other unexpected concern happens. You will find us to be very understanding, and I promise you that there isn't much that we haven't seen or wouldn't understand. Accidents happen, as long as you and your family are safe, we will figure everything else out.

You are responsible for letting us know at the first signs of behavioral, health or emotional issues so that we can help you. You will also need to give us time to arrange removal of a dog if it isn't working, or be agreeable to a foster trade for another dog that we anticipate will be a good fit for your home.

You are responsible for using rescue resources wisely and with proper respect and care. And you are responsible for making sure that to the best of your ability rescue resources are used on rescue dogs. (Food, crates, medicine, preventatives, vet vouchers, etc.) We are a rescue, so if you know of a need that rescue resources can help, please inform us first. Adoption costs rarely cover the cost of operations so we trust you to help make sure that our resources are used wisely and treated with care.

You are responsible on occassion to help with transport to and from our authorized vet.

You are responsible to bring your foster dog or puppy to at least one viewing a month, usually held at the Colerain Petsmart Store. You can drop off and need not stay. Children are very difficult to work around, so please make arrangements for any children if you plan on staying to help.

We are responsible for vet expenses that are approved and provided by our authorized veterinarian.

If needed we will provide food and crates. However it is absolutely necessary that crates are returned when not in use, our crate situation is very strained so those are needed back when not in use.